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Saturday Word: Tax Breaks

By Janie Lorber April 10, 2010 11:20 amApril 10, 2010 11:20 am

President Obama this morning highlighted the tax breaks that 100 million Americans can use to save hundreds or even thousands of dollars when they file their income tax returns, including a credit for families with children in college, for first-time homebuyers and for those who weatherized their homes.

Even people who had already submitted their taxes before the deadline on Thursday can adjust them if they overlooked potential savings, he said in his weekly national address.

“So far, Americans who have filed their taxes have discovered that the average refund is up nearly 10 percent this year – to an all-time high of about $3,000,” Mr. Obama said. “This is due in large part to the Recovery Act. In fact, one-third of the Recovery Act was made up of tax cuts – tax cuts that have already provided more than $160 billion in relief for families and businesses, and nearly $100 billion of that directly into the pockets of working Americans.”

Throughout his remarks this morning, Mr. Obama fought off criticism that he has not kept his promises from the campaign, saying that he cut taxes for 95 percent of working Americans as pledged. His administration has also provided a 65 percent tax credit to help cover the cost of health care, made sure the first $2,400 in unemployment benefits is tax-free and extended the child tax credit to more families, he added.

“And one thing we have not done is raise income taxes on families making less than $250,000,” he said. “That’s another promise we’ve kept.”

Republican Address: Republicans, however, insisted in their weekly address that the administration is ignoring the economic woes of Americans.

“For more than a year, Congress and the President have focused instead on a controversial health spending bill which a majority of Americans said they didn’t want. Recognizing that their $1.2 trillion stimulus has failed and in a frantic, election-year push, Democrats in Congress are labeling every bill they bring up as a ‘jobs’ bill, ” Senator Jon Kyl, the Republican whip from Arizona, said, referring to a package of bills Democrats are pushing as part of their “jobs agenda.” “Most are just more government spending, leading to higher deficits and more debt — and very few jobs.”

Mr. Kyl added that taxes will rise when the Bush tax cuts expire at the end of this year.

“Taxes will increase on families with children, on married couples, on income, on capital gains and dividends, and even after death,” he said. “It comes to a total of $2 trillion in new taxes over the next 10 years. And that doesn’t include the more than $500 billion in new taxes in the health spending law.”

Mr. Obama wants to extend Bush’s tax cuts, except for individuals making more than $200,000 a year and couples making $250,000.

Summer of Confirmation: Mr. Obama has a list of 10 judges he might appoint to replace Justice John Paul Stevens, who announced Friday he would retire this summer. The rare opportunity to make back-to-back Supreme Court appointments poses a political challenge for Mr. Obama.

This year’s confirmation battle will hardly resemble last summer’s. The health care debate has left the Senate far more polarized and Democrats can no longer fend off a Republican filibuster after loosing their supermajority with the election of Senator Scott Brown, Republican of Massachusetts. As Democrats prepare for a tricky election season, the nomination is likely to become a significant election issue, writes The Times’s Sheryl Gay Stolberg.

Justice Stevens “may be the last justice from a time when ability and independence, rather than perceived ideology, were viewed as the crucial qualifications for a seat on the court,” Adam Liptak, The Times’s Supreme Court correspondent writes in a piece on Mr. Stevens role on the bench. “If Mr. Obama chooses another liberal, it will not alter the fundamental ideological balance on the court. Nonetheless, the loss of Justice Stevens’s personal charm, canny tactics and institutional memory can only leave the court’s more liberal wing in a weakened position.”

Civics Foible: Talking Points Memo points out a civics foible made by Sue Lowden, the former Nevada Republican Party Chair, one of the many candidates challenging Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader, in November. In a press release posted to her campaign Web site Friday, Ms. Lowden calls on and Mr. Obama, Mr. Reid and Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker, to “cross-party lines” in the wake of the Stevens retirement “and nominate as well as confirm a candidate that will serve with judicial restraint.” One problem: The House has nothing to do with the nomination and confirmation process.

In the Pipeline: In an effort to pass financial regulatory legislation by the Memorial Day recess, the White House has called a meeting of top lawmakers on Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reports.

An agonizing four-day wait came to an end early Saturday morning when rescuers failed to find any more survivors after the most deadly accident in an American mine since 1970, reports The Times’s Ian Urbina. The mine has been cited and fined several times for safety violations, including repeated problems with methane buildups, which are thought to have caused this explosion.

President Obama drew criticism on Thursday when he said, “we don’t have a strategy yet,” for military action against ISIS in Syria. Lawmakers will weigh in on Mr. Obama’s comments on the Sunday shows.Read more…